Clark,

Thanks for sharing that.  I often worry when I read, on the Forum, of people who choose to use the areas, designed for foam floatation, as storage.  I suppose that a closed compartment does provide bouyancy.  However, poke a hole in that compartment and it's useless as floatation.  That's why the design calls for foam.

I was young and foolish once (and lucky).  Now that I'm old, I want to stack the deck in my favor.  If John Harris designed it with foam, it gets foam.

Cheers,

Dick

http://cumulus.aunt-mary.net/images/peeler/

 Dick - thanks for the links to your pics! Nice job on the Peeler & gives me more confidence my Clubman's 'enough' (had 5 MINIS if you count my '65 1275S, long gone alas...) to get a winter project craft from my landlocked driveway to the nearest suitable inland water!

Prefer not on with a trailer though, I'm thinking ~ 40 lbs & < 16' so roof-rack size.

My MINI's a 2003 and has no difficulty towing the trailer and the Peeler (approximately 700 lbs together) on the Interstate.  The standard MINI Cooper has a towing capacity of 1500 lbs and huge disk brakes.  There is no way to put a hitch on a MINI Cooper S.

Wow, a '65 S!  That is very small compared to the current generarion.

I've had two of the 'new' S's, an early-build '03 I drove for 135,000 miles before parking it. Worn suspension bushings & shocks made it a little testy to drive in traffic; sold it off after delivery of a 2007 S. That was a disappointment from Day 01 because of the changed engine design & turbocharger. Clubman's what I wanted, body-wise. back in '07 but they weren't available here at the time.

I've seen aftermarket towing hitchs for S's, haven't explored factory parts as I'd rather do without a trailer if at all possible.

Yes, my '65 Austin-Cooper S was a hoot'n'a half for the few years I drove it! All of 120" long end-to-end on 10" diameter wheels. No towing with THAT platform, that's a cert!

As far as I know, there are no factory trailer hitches for MINIs.  I installed an aftermarket hitch on my MINI Cooper 2dr HB standard.  Picture below.  Pardon the dirt on the car.  It had been raining the day before.